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Friday, 30 November 2012

Seasoned beauty girls get ready to gasp. I have never used an eyelash curler before. I've never owned one and never seen the need for one! But recently I've started lusting after some gorgeous curly lashes (I blame all your lovely blogs) and it just so happened that I spotted a bargain in Superdrug whilst I was out hauling. This fantastic curler was just £3.99. (Down from £5.99)

As I said before I've never used these so I wasn't sure how much of a dramatic effect to expect, and I can't compare with any other brands.

Before

After

I know these aren't from the exactly the same angle and the first one isn't as detailed, but I could seriously see a noticeable difference! The packaging recommended that I hold it "gently but firmly" for 5 seconds. I held it for 10 seconds just because I wanted to see how well it would work and I think 5 might be a little short. These were really easy to use and comfortable on my fingers. They also come with a spare extra rubber strip for when the original becomes unusable which is handy.

These pictures are of course with zero make up, just after cleansing. I think for £3.99 it would be ridiculous to not want to try these and I'm very satisfied with my purchase. I'll be getting some serious use out of these!

As most of you know I picked up a few MUA goodies in a recent haul. I've since reviewed the lipsticks (fantastic, in case you were wondering) and now I wanted to give my two eye shadows a thorough examination.

First up! The packaging isn't anything to rave about, although I do appreciate the clear lid. I hate when I can't quickly see which colour I'm grabbing. There's no apparent scent and to be honest I wouldn't expect one from eyeshadows.
These colours are beautiful. Extremely soft and buttery. There is a fair bit of fall out when picking these up on a brush and you do have to rub them in a little to get a smooth application.

You can see here that the particles can be a little bit patchy, more so in Shade 30 (Gold) and a few have settled on places other than the swatch! However, it's when these shadows are applied with a damp brush that they really come to life for me.

It's literally like painting on liquid metal. It's so so so beautiful !I couldn't get over it. These would look amazing used as chunky eyeliner.

Sadly I couldn't get as good a picture of the gold shade, but you can see how beautifully it catches the light.

I have to say, I love this brand. The cosmetics are of amazing quality, particularly when you consider that most of the range is just £1 and there are often deals such as 3 for 2. MUA have recently released a line of make up brushes which I would be very interested in knowing more about! Let me know if you're tried them. I really can't wait to pick up some more of these shadows and I know that they are soon to become a firm favourite in my make up case.

Thursday, 29 November 2012

I'm not someone that has ever gotten much use out of heated stylers. I would only ever blowdry my hair if I had somewhere to be and straightening was reserved for weddings and funerals. I fully accept that I was a lazy hair stylist. A few weeks ago, however, I picked up the Enrapture Totem Styler that I had been lusting after for about 6 months. Amazingly, it had gone down to £28 from £75 in Argos. Needless to say, it was soon sitting on my sofa being lovingly stroked.
Since this sudden desire to have a good hair day had come upon me I realised I needed to have a heat defence spray.

This beauty from Tresemme claims to not only prevent frazzled hair up to 230C but also smooth frizz and seal in shine. And I have to say, I agree with them!

I give my hair a liberal spray of this before blowdrying and again before heat styling and I've noticed that with continued use my hair has become softer. I am so impressed with this product. Only true miracles make it into my star product category!

This product leaves no residue whatsoever. No stickiness, crunchiness or any of that horrible greasy-looking build up. It also features a small button so that you can lock the bottle and prevent any possible spills. It does have a scent to it, and honestly I quite like the smell of the product, it just smells like conditioner to me, but I have heard some reviews claiming that the scent really bothers them (the scent doesn't really linger after styling) so check on that first. It's also worth noting that I love the design of the product, I love the colour coding system that Tresemme use. It's so simple and sleek.

You can buy this for £4.69 and Boots currently have a deal on for 3 select Tresemme products for £9 so I wholeheartedly suggest you make this part of your 3.

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

I got paid on Monday which meant that it was time to stock up on essentials (and a few non-essentials.)
Heres what I managed to grab:

My first stop was Boots to check out the haircare. I was actually looking for Tresemme dry shampoo since I had seen it reviewed and recommended recently by Harriet here. But it just so happened that all the VO5 products were a 3rd off there. I ended up picking VO5 dry shampoo (usually £3.49) simply because I love a bargain! There was a volumising version but it claimed to be for fine hair so I'm not sure it would have done anything for me. Best to keep it simple.

I also picked up the "treat me right" intensive conditioning mask. (usually £4.39)

This looks like just the thing to treat my Winter hair. Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner (£3.79 each) was also on buy one get one free, and I'm nearing the end of my current Tresemme bottles. I picked up the "Hello Hydration" set which smells absolutely beautiful. I love coconut scents as they always remind me of being on holiday!

Also on offer was cotton wool, cotton pads and buds at buy one get one half price. I use the pads all the time for cleansing, toning and nail varnish removal, so I may as well stock up whilst they're cheap! (£1.39 for pads)

At Superdrug the first thing I saw was my all time favourite deodorant, Dove Cucumber and Green Tea, on better than half price so I immediately put one in my basket. I've recently tried two different Sure deodorants (thinking that a different scent would be better than the first one) and I was so disappointed. I'll never cheat on Dove again, it wasn't worth it.

With the 3 for 2's still on at Superdrug I picked up two new Barry M varnishes. (£2.99 each)

I picked "Black" because I wanted to try out a galaxy manicure and I'm hoping this will make the ideal base. "Nude" was chosen because I wanted a pale neutral base to try out Jasmine's marble nail art tutorial that you can view here. My third item was the much talked about Undressed palette from MUA (£4):

I was a bit torn between this and Heaven and Earth, but the matte shades won me over. I have no matte eyeshadows! Really excited to start using this. Just as I was trying to leave the store an eyelash curler caught my eye. I've actually never used one before and since I've started blogging I've seen no end of talk about the Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler and thought that maybe a curler was something worth investing in.

This beauty from classic, cosmetic power-house Revlon was £2 off and I really couldn't say no to £3.99!

Have you taken advantage of any of these offers? Have you tried any of the products I picked up? Let me know your opinion in the comments.

Monday, 26 November 2012

As you all know I recently lost my MUA virginity on a recent trip to Superdrug (6 products for £4! Wow) and I picked up 3 lipsticks. When I swatched these using the testers in store, they seemed quite sheer but I think there must have been something off with the testers because there is nothing sheer about the shades I picked up!

I chose a good variety here. A pinky-purple, a deep red and a fun peach shade. Every one of these shades has come up smooth, strong, super pigmented and really moisturising. To be honest the colours are very true to what you see in the bullet.

Shade 2. A rich pink which leans purple/blue. I love this colour. It's possibly my favourite of the bunch. It is so lovely and pigmented but I think I could definitely get away with it for daytime.

Shade 8. A strong red with a slightly golden shimmer (not very well photographed). I really like the colour here but this had my least favourite texture because there was a very, very fine grit from the shimmer. It's not anything really noticeable but I'm trying to be very critical!

Shade 16* is a very bright peach/orange. I feel like this is the darker more wearable version of Barry M's Lip Paint in Peach, which I reviewed here. It has a great smooth texture and applies beautifully.

All of these lipsticks work great blended out into more of a stain with a balm over the top for more longevity and a sheerer colour.

As an example this is Shade 8 worn as a stain. This is the make up look that I had yesterday for dinner and meet ups with my family. It's a really wearable daytime look. This lasted me a full Sunday lunch, 3 drinks and 2 games of Scrabble before it was pretty much gone. Not bad for a £1 product.

These lipsticks are so versatile and I absolutely love them. These will not be my last MUA lip products, I can assure you of that. For £1 each, why not pick up the whole lot? I know I might do!

What do you think of these shades? Which is your favourite?

Lauren

*this shade was actually marked as shade 14 but I'm almost certain that it's 16. Sorry!

I think the premise of Saturday Manicure is officially over since my weekends have been ridiculous recently. Perks of working in retail I guess, sigh. I also have to apologise in advance for my shoddy brush work and the fact that the paint has been indented with all sorts of horrific marks! Boo. But here goes.

I have a ton of Barry M polishes. They are great value at £2.99 and come in a huge array of shades. Indigo is a beautiful deep blue. It's almost navy under artificial lighting but shines a lovely dark prussian blue in the sun. It definitely leans more purple than green.

As always application was very easy, the varnish is smooth and the brush, though not perfect, is a good shape to fill the nail in 3 strokes. The first layer of this varnish goes on very patchy but after a second coat it has perfect coverage and a high shine finish.

My right hand fared a little better.

I've already had a few compliments on this lovely shade and I think it would look even better with a fine glitter topcoat in gold or silver. Very "midnight-sky" looking. The Glamour Glitter from Nails Inc and Glamour magazine would be ideal. Barry M Nail Paints such as Indigo can be bought from Boots, Superdrug or direct from the Barry M Website for just £2.99.

Have you tried Indigo? What do you think of Barry M nail varnishes in general?

Saturday, 24 November 2012

Everyone knows about the fantastic 3 for 2 offer on at Superdrug at the moment (ends December 4th aka my 4 year anniversary, eek!) and I decided that it was high time I took advantage of it myself. I'm feeling extremely strapped for cash at the minute because payday isn't 'til Monday, so naturally I headed straight for the MUA section.
Previous to this I was a total MUA virgin. Never touched the stuff, never even heard of it before I started blogging. That is until I swatched a few bits yesterday and gasped at the gorgeous pigmentation of the eyeshadows! Wow. I've also heard great things about the lipsticks so I grabbed 3 and I threw in a nail varnish for good measure.

Excuse the weird sticky stain. They all had these horrible little "new" stickers on and I clearly suck at removing stickers.

In daylight.

At night with flash. (first and second swapped round, sorry)

The labelling on these is literally the most confusing thing. There were some numbers on the stickers and one of them had two different names on two different stickers?! So bizarre. I'll update with the shades if I can figure it out. They look super pretty and I can't wait to try them on my lips.

I'm a sucker for metallic browns and these bronze and gold shades are just beautiful. They are so pigmented and smooth. These are in shade 28 and 30.

The nail varnish is in Plum Noir. Unbelievably I picked all this up for £4. Oh my goodness. My purse was very grateful!

As I was browsing the bath bits a brand caught my eye which is simply called "I love..." this is very Philosophy style packaging, super sleek and quirky but without the price tag.

This raspberry and blackberry scent was by far my favourite. It smells incredible. It actually smells just like my current addiction, Sainsburys own Raspberry Sorbet, tastes. I know that's a weird way to describe it but you'd know what I mean if you tried it! I got this huge 500ml bottle for just £2.05 which is fantastic and picked up the matching lip balm for 99p.

Sadly I wasn't able to smell the lipbalm in store because it plastic wrapped and there wasn't any testers but to be honest I'm a bit disappointed! It's nowhere near as nice as the wash smells and when I tried it it was hard and waxy and difficult to use. I'm not sure if it just needs warming a little but I'll post a review when I've had a few tries with it.

So that's everything! Expect some swatches and reviews in due time.

What have you picked up at Superdrug recently? And what do you think of the featured brands?

Friday, 23 November 2012

I usually don't wear any make up when I'm relaxing inside the house but when I'm out and about during daytime I like a light wash of skin brightening make up. Inevitably, if you go out looking like you just woke up, you will run into your ex/that girl that was mean at school/that person that you had a crush on for like a year and they never asked you out.

1. A smooth moisturised base with light foundation and concealer and little bit of highlighter on the cheek bones.

2. A champagne coloured shimmer shadow washed over the lid and a little under the bottom lash line. I used Marshmallow Shimmer Cube from The Body Shop. Choc Chip was used to just add a slight shadow to my upper lash line.

3. A couple of slicks of mascara, I used Maybelline's Collosal Cat Eyes.

4. For a teensy bit of colour, I blended out a smudge of Barry M's Flamingo Peach on my lips and topped with a Body Shop peachy lip gloss and I used The Body Shop's Macaroon blush to brighten the apples of my cheeks.

My hair here is what I'm most proud of ( I know it's not exactly face!) This was achieved using the Enrapture Totem Styler, which I've been using for the past couple of weeks, on setting 2-2-2 (using chunky sections.) I used Tresemme Heat Defence before blow drying and before tonging and Silvikrin Hair Spray to set before lightly brushing out. Great, effortless-looking big curls! This is my favourite off-duty hair style. I'll do a review on that styler soon and show you a few of the great ways to use it.

What's your go-to relaxed weekend look?

Lauren

p.s. I know that my hair is 3 different colours :( I'm a natural dark blonde and I'm trying to gracefully grow out my chemical laden locks. Please be kind!

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

I really am dedicated to this brand. A lot of it has to do with where I live. It's a really small town and there are no department stores and beauty counters and fabulous makeovers. There is literally a Boots, a Superdrug and The Body Shop. Boots has a Clinique/Lancome/No7/Elizabeth Arden section but I used to work there and I know for a fact that are mostly all manned by nasty b*tches (I hate saying that but it's true) and to be honest I don't really want them earning commission from it and I feel like they wouldn't respect me as a customer anyway. I've had a few occasions when I've returned something and the staff have expected me to go and pick up the replacement myself, despite the fact that they are supposed to do it, just because I used to work there. I wouldn't do it where I work to old colleagues so why should they?

Oh my gosh this is turning into such a rant. Basically I like to come into a store for skincare and cosmetics and actually have them talk to me about the products and help me choose shades/types etc. That is what a beauty shopping experience should be like. I am actually quite good friends with the manager in my local Body Shop now and it has made the world of difference to my shopping experiences. I look forward to going in there.

So... needless to say I have picked up a few items. I felt that it would be fun to kind of lay them all out and see how much I've got. So here is the photo evidence... oh dear...

Yes there is a lot. To be fair, the Tea Tree skincare collection is my boyfriends. And the apple body wash has almost ran out. Hmm. Let's take a closer look.

So we have:

3x Body Washes

3x Body Butters

2x Facial Washes

1x Exfoliating Wash

1x Exfoliating Pads

1x Eye Shadow

3x Shimmer Cubes

1x Toner

1x Night Cream

2x Day Moisturiser

1x Blemish Balm

1x Lip Balm

1x Lip Butter

1x Blush

1x Powder Base

1x Foundation

1x Face and Body Brush

2x Eyeshadow Brushes

1x Highlighting Concealer

1x Lipgloss

1x Vanilla Bliss Gift Set

1x Body Mist

1x Body Polish

1x Mineral Mask

1x Eyeliner

2x Mascara (the other is stored away and unopened!)

1x Bath Lily

1x Make Up Cleanser/Remover

Total: 38 (47 if you count the shimmer cubes as individual shadows)

Terrible. But to be fair this is the only thing I really splurge on. Oh well. If they make me happy then who cares?

Have you got a single brand collection to rival this?! Send me links to posts!

I won't show you them all together because I have a collection post up next so I want you to get the full impact! Alright, so a few days ago my boyfriend tells me that he's picked a mature female coworker for his secret santa and he has no idea what to get but he knows that she likes The Body Shop! Cue my expertise (i.e. shopping with his card.) I had a few vouchers so here's what I bought:

This is the Vanilla Bliss Christmas Gift Set. This is great value at £15 and contains everything you need for an indulgent experience! Included is: Vanilla Bliss Soap Bar, Vanilla Bliss Body Butter, Vanilla Bliss Shower Cream and Vanilla Bliss Body Polish. This was the gift that I picked for the lovely Theresa! The packaging is so beautiful on this, champagne and gold metallic tin with a snowflake pattern plus that gorgeous cream bow! I would love to receive this and Jake was pleasantly surprised with the quality of what I picked.

A word on the Christmas collection at The Body Shop this year, it is somewhat hit and miss. The cranberry joy scent, which is what I was most excited about trying, was really inconsistent. Everything smelt a little bit different and to be honest, cheap, which is terrible considering the price and the quality that I'm used to from the brand. The vanilla was lovely and soft, and the butter literally smelt like Walls Vanilla ice cream! I don't know if that's a good thing for you or not but I felt like this was the safest option for a gift for someone I know next to nothing about! The stand out for me was the ginger sparkle collection. Oh my gosh! What an amazing rich spicy scent. But, despite the fact that I adored it, the friend I was shopping with couldn't stand it! She likes musky and floral scents so if you have similar taste, the ginger might not be for you. Everything in the ginger collection had a really uniform scent and just felt amazing. It was like Christmas for me.

Which is why I had to pick up...

This collection is so cute! Ginger Sparkle Body Polish, £10.

I haven't tried this yet but I am so excited. It smells divine. I love spicy/nutty/fruity smells and this is just perfect for me. I can't wait! I've been told that this is a light enough exfoliant to use every day, which is great news for my dry winter skin which could use a bit of buffing.

Earth Lovers Watermelon and Eucalyptus Shower Gel, £5.

I'm tempted to keep this for Spring because it is such a lovely fresh smell. I actually hate all kinds of melon... the taste and the texture is just awful for me. But bizarrely I love the smell of watermelon and it really reminds me of being on holiday and just being totally relaxed and cool. This product brings back all those wonderful memories and I love it. It's also 100% biodegradable. Love your planet!

Satsuma Body Mist, £8

I've been using this since the second I sprayed some on in the shop. Apparently I love smelling like citrus fruit. Who new? This is a great light alternative to perfume and I even spritz a little in my hair. It was so difficult to choose a mist as they were all lovely, but this won me over in the end. Particularly as I have a satsuma body butter mini that I'm using with it. Instant Winter-blues removal. Ahh.

Vineyard Peach Shower Gel, £4

This collection was only released a few months ago and it's already a firm favourite with lots of shoppers. I adore this scent and I can't wait to use it! I also bought the Body Butter from the same range...

Vineyard Peach Body Butter, £13

Mmm. I will be definitely be using these together! This butter is the same great quality but it's a little lighter than my Shea Body Butter so it will be better suited to the warmer months.

Aloe Gentle Exfoliator, £9

I already have lots of bits from this range and I wanted to pick up a new exfoliator. Up until now I had been using Soap and Glory's Face Soap occasionally but it just felt really harsh and left my eyes stinging. I've used this product twice now and it feels AMAZING. I love it so much, it was exactly what I was looking for. The "grit" inside is super fine and just gently buffs away dead skin without irritation or stinging. Fantastic addiction to my collection.

Aloe Soothing Moisture Lotion SPF15, £11

I already religiously apple the aloe night cream but I needed something light for day to put under my foundation. I love that this has SPF in it because so many facial products don't and it's easy to forget sun protection when you live in England. (I've read some really horrible studies about sun damage recently so this was super important for me.) This makes it easy for lazy old me to stay safe! This applies like a dream and soaks in super fast. It's actually out of stock on the internet right now so check out your local store if this is something you're interested in.

Warming Mineral Mask, £10

I've been looking for a mask for a while so that I could give myself a regular deep cleansing facial. This is just the ticket! I used this during my Sunday night pamper session and wow what a dream! This really does warm up beautifully and stays warm too unlike some other warming products. I felt radiant and cleansed afterwards and it was so relaxing. Great buy.

Eye Colour in Star Silver, £5 (down from £8)

I struggled to do justice for this gorgeous shade. It's a richly pigmented bright silver and just perfect for the festive season. I can't wait to use this with my teal shimmer cubes!

All in all worth £91. And I spent £43. What a saving!

So that's everything. What did you think? Have you got any of these products? What's your opinion on the Christmas collections? Let me know!

Lauren

p.s. I know the background in these looks rough, it's not filthy I swear! I live in a really old building with the original Victorian window fixtures, so all the paint is a mess and I have metal window frames. Sorry!

Sunday, 18 November 2012

I actually somehow managed to achieve yet another Body Shop haul yesterday because my boyfriend needed me to pick up a secret Santa for his 40 year old female colleague and I had a few vouchers. Would anybody actually want to see what I bought or am I literally boring everyone to death with The Body Shop?!